Danish pop/
dance music band best known in the
U.S. for the
song "
Barbie Girl," although they've had a couple of Danish and
U.K. hits. "Barbie Girl" came off their first album,
1997's
Aquarium, although the band's members,
René Dif,
Claus Norreen,
Lene Grawford Nystrøm and
Søren Rasted, had actually been the band "
Joyspeed" who had a minor Danish hit with "Itzy Bitzy." The band decided to "reinvent themselves" as Aqua, and the new band's "Roses Are Red" spent two months (instead of one week as their old identity had) on the charts of their country.
When "Barbie Girl" was released, Mattel sued the band's label for the sexual overtones of the song being associated with their product. The original suit wanted withdrawal of all copies of "Barbie Girl" compact discs and videos from stores, despite the album's already carrying the disclaimer that the song "is a social comment and was not created or approved by the makers of the doll." Preliminary rulings were all in favor of the record label; the most recent information I can find (25 September 2000) says that Mattel was still appealing the case at that time, but nothing seems to have come of it since then.
Aqua's second album, "Aquarius" came out in 2000. It did not sell as well as the first album, and in August 2001 it was announced that the band was breaking up. Lene Nystrøm and Søren Rasted were married in 2001, and Lene has plans to do solo music, as well as René.
Sources:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Bpqv8b5p4nsqh
http://aqualene.bei.t-online.de/
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1424988/19980518/story.jhtml
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/respect/aqua.html
http://www.aclu.org/news/2000/n092500.html